It should be a great time to be a Bama fan. It should be time to bask in a BCS championship, to revel in a remarkable season of redemption and perseverance. It's not.

Because of Bama fans.

"I don't think it's about who you play, I think it's about who you are." -- Nick Saban.

Thanks to accused tree-killer Harvey Updyke and all those Bama fans who sought his autograph on Bourbon Street, the world now has its own perception of who Alabama fans really are. Thanks to a viral video of obscene, drunken imbeciles, the picture is even uglier.

Some would like to believe that picture is distorted, that rudeness and cruelty are exceptions rather than UA rules. It is too late, now. The video of Alabama fans torturing an unconscious LSU rube in a New Orleans Krystal is like the sports equivalent of Bull Connor's attack dogs. The worst in Alabama have been allowed to define the rest."Don't talk too much. Don't pop off. Don't talk after the game until you cool off." -- Paul "Bear" Bryant.

The worst of Alabama's worst was the repugnant putz in the video who rubbed his private parts all over the oblivious victim. Brian Downing, a 32-year-old father from Smith's Station in Lee County, turned himself in to New Orleans Police Thursday.

He will pay a price -- if only when his daughter Googles him 10 years from now. But we can't put all this on him. The Alabama Teabagger did not act alone.

"Does anybody have a Sharpie," one girl in crimson asked in the video as "Roll Tide Roll" echoed in the background.

"He's going to get some cheese fries in his ear," another guy says.

"He may be dead," says another, with a nervous laugh. That's what passed for reason in this mob: A nervous laugh.

"When I was a young coach I used to say, 'Treat everybody alike.' That's bull. Treat everybody fairly." -- Paul "Bear" Bryant.

I grew up an Alabama fan. I graduated from Alabama and crimson is in my DNA. I adhere to ridiculous ceremony and superstition each fall Saturday because I know down deep that to vary my routine could cost Bama a win.

Yet that video made me ill.

Those so-called "fans" have done as much damage to Alabama as any rogue booster. They cast into doubt one of the self-proclaimed foundations of Alabama football."I always want my players to show class. Knock 'em down, pat 'em on the back. And run back to the huddle." -- Paul "Bear" Bryant.

Some, thanks to these "fans," will now say all the talk of Alabama class is nothing but pretense. The participants should be disassociated, denied season tickets, booted from school if they are students.

It is sad not just for UA, but for all of Alabama.

At Alabama, and at Auburn, football has long brought a measure of respect, a reason to cheer when poverty and politics, racism, ignorance and the harshness of life brought pain.

It is more than sport. It is a teaching tool and a life lesson. It gives us something in common, crossing all our lines and bringing us, even in our opposition, together.

And always -- whether it came from Bryant or Shug Jordan or others -- it has carried an undercurrent of a message.

Winning is the goal, but winners don't win all their games. And losers don't always end the game with the fewest points.

"I don't care if you are a supporter, or you're a fan, or whatever you do, the way you support the team should be done with class." -- Nick Saban.